Midwife delivers 3,000th baby

Peggy Davis, left, delivered her 3,000th baby this week, a personal and career milestone, while serving as a midwife to Jennifer Phillips with newborn Ty Phillips at Central Carolina Hospital.

SANFORD —

On the back of Peggy Davis’s green shirt are the words “3,000 and counting.”

Davis, a certified nursing midwife for Carolina Women’s Health Center, delivered her 3,000th baby this week at Central Carolina Hospital — a personal milestone for Davis and a reason to celebrate among the staff.

“It was an easy birth,” Davis said of her 3,000th delivery. “Second babies are easy and it was a lovely birth.”

Davis delivered Ty Phillips, weighing in at 8 pounds, 6 ounces, on Wednesday at CCH, and Ty’s parents, Jennifer and Scott Phillips, said this was the second time Davis was involved with the birthing of their children.

“She saw both of my kids during the pregnancies,” Jennifer Phillips said Friday after leaving the hospital. “She has taken excellent care of me, has a wonderful bedside manner and you can tell she really cares.”

She said she has chosen midwives for her two pregnancies because of their wealth of knowledge, and their availability for the mother. A midwife, Davis said, is trained in a variety of women’s health needs, including prenatal care and labor and delivery.

“Peggy anticipates things before you even need it,” Jennifer Phillips said. “That was something unique about her. She got what you needed even before you knew you needed it.”

Most midwives keep a log with the names of babies they’ve delivered and their dates of birth, Davis said, and it was thanks to her log she realized she’d be delivering her 3,000th baby this past week.

In Davis’s 17 years as a midwife, she said she’s seen the use of epidurals by mothers increase because of the increase in its accessibility. It is the duty of the midwife to help the mother and child have a healthy delivery, but not tell a woman how she should have her baby, Davis said.

“Our number one priority is healthy mom, healthy baby,” she said. “And to help the mother have a positive experience she can look back on.”

Davis went back to school at East Carolina University to be trained as a midwife after her four children were out of the home, and she’s delivered eight of her own grandchildren. Davis and her husband, Christopher, live in Lee County. Davis said she plans to continue birthing babies for as long as she can.

“It has been fun,” Davis said. “It’s the best job where, everyday, I get to be present during one of the highlights of these mothers’ lives.”